Bike Rides and Bumps
by futureauthor13
Summary: 'It Runs in the Story' Universe. Mordecai takes a six and a half year old Maddie out to ride bikes at the park. Just a simple Father/Daughter oneshot. Special thanks to Cupcakeforever on Deviantart. Enjoy!


**This oneshot was inspired by a picture by Cupcakeforever on Deviantart (search for her username in Google since I can't put links in here). To Cupcake: Thank you so much for the cute picture! Hope you enjoy this oneshot.**

The sun slowly rose, shining light into the apartment bedroom. It was that perfect time in the morning, just before the sunlight hit your eyes and forced you to move and get comfortable again or wake up completely.

The bluejay felt his wife's warm breath on his neck and smiled. A loving and beautiful wife, his own place, a warm bed, and a peaceful morning. This truly was the life.

"Daddy!" Mordecai's eyes shot open and the bedroom door was nearly knocked down. He could see the pointy, violet hair of his daughter bouncing into their room. "Morning Daddy!"

"Morning," Mordecai said, not quite as enthusiastic as his daughter. He rubbed his eyes and closed them, hoping his daughter would get the message.

"Daddy! wake up! It's morning!" his daughter said, as if he had forgotten.

"Daddy's waking up," Margaret answered for her daughter, sitting up in their bed, "But he's going to need a few minutes. Why don't you go out to the kitchen and get out your favorite cereal for breakfast." She then remembered last Mother's Day. "But don't pour it! Okay, Maddie?"

"Okay Mama," Maddie replied, happily running out of the master bedroom. Margaret looked over at her husband, smirking.

"I told you not to tell her last night," the cardinal said.

"I know, I know," Mordecai replied, still tired. He let out a yawn and sat up. As soon as he did, he was greeted with a kiss. He instantly felt more awake. His wife's beak was always soft, and her kisses tasted like coffee.

"Come on, we better get up," she said, smiling at her husband. Both birds got up and did their morning routine. Mordecai got his clothes while Margaret went to the restroom, and then vice versa. The two then walked out of their bedroom and into the kitchen, passing framed pictures of the three birds, plus other members of their park family. In the kitchen, their daughter was practically bouncing in her seat.

"Well, someone's happy today," Margaret smiled, getting out two bowls from the cupboard.

"Yep! 'Cause Daddy's gonna take me bike riding!" Maddie chimed.

"Yep," Mordecai agreed as he put toast for him and Margaret in the toaster. A few months ago, Margaret had taken her bike out of storage and started riding around town since the weather was getting nicer. Seeing her mother ride a bike made Maddie want to ride one too. After learning that her best friend Robbie was going to learn how to ride a bike, that just sealed the deal.

So after months and months of waiting, Maddie had gotten a small bike for Christmas. As soon as the snow melted, she was practically pushing her father out the door to teach her. But luckily, Mordecai was more than happy to. Unfortunately their house was in the middle of the street, with intersections and hills (both going up and going down) on each side, so there wasn't much room to ride.

The night before, Mordecai told Maddie that since he didn't have any painting jobs that day that he would take her to the park where she would have plenty of room to ride a bike. Knowing that she would have plenty of free space as well as the fact that she would see Benson, Pops and Skips, Maddie was practically a ball of happy.

The six and a half year old ate her cereal quickly while her parents ate their breakfast and drank their coffee. Seeing that her parents were eating slower than her, Maddie decided to eat a little slower. It would be weird just sitting at the table without eating anyway. So, she chewed on her last few pieces of cereal and made small whirlpools of milk with her spoon while her parents talked.

"Daddy?" Maddie asked finally, "You put my bike in your car, right?"

"Yep," Mordecai answered.

"And my helmet?"

"Yep, I've got it all covered."

Maddie smiled. "You're a good daddy."

"Yeah," Mordecai said with a smile. Margaret just rolled her eyes, giggling a little at her husband.

As soon as breakfast was over, Maddie got dressed and Margaret put a headband in her hair so her helmet wouldn't flatten her bangs over her eyes and prevent her from seeing. The little chick gave her mom and hug goodbye and walked out the door with her dad right behind her.

()()()()()(()()()

"Hi Benny! Hi Pops! Hi Skips!" Maddie shouted happily as she entered the park house through the kitchen door. The three park residents looked up from their breakfast and newspapers.

"Maddie! Hello!" Pops grinned, instantly getting up and hugging the bird.

"Hey guys," Mordecai greeted, "I was taking Maddie over here to ride her bike around and she wanted to say hi. I figured you guys wouldn't mind."

"Of course not," Pops said, still hugging Maddie. When he let go, Maddie looked at Skips. As usual, the yeti was quiet, but he gave her a nod and a friendly smile, and that was enough for her. She then looked at the gumball machine sipping coffee.

"Are you gonna watch me ride my bike, Benny?" Maddie asked.

Benson gave her a look. "Maddie, I told you, I like to be called Benson."

"But I like to call you Benny," Maddie replied, not quite understanding. Benson gave an annoyed sigh.

"Oh lighten up, Benson," Mordecai said, giving his ex-boss a friendly pat on the back, "At least she isn't calling you the wrong name like Maellard, or any of the names we used to call you."

"What were the names?" Maddie and Pops asked innocently.

"Yeah Mordecai, what were some of those names?" Benson asked, glaring at the bluejay.

"Uh, hehe, oh wow look at the time! Come on Maddie, we better get going." He grabbed his daughter's hand and headed towards the door. "We'll see you guys around!"

"Just stay clear of the north side! I just laid cement there and it could still be wet!" Benson shouted.

"Will do, Benny!" Mordecai shouted back. He heard Benson mumble something but didn't quite catch it.

The two birds walked over to Mordecai's car and pulled out the bike. Mordecai helped get Maddie's helmet on, and then the two started to walk towards the bike path.

"Daddy, did you and Rigby ever ride bikes?" Maddie asked.

"Well, yeah, a little," Mordecai answered. When he was in the fifth grade and the first two years of middle school, they both had bikes. Rigby would usually crash his, but they both would ride back and forth to school, and sometimes they would go to small groups after school and do bike tricks with other kids. But once they got their driver's permits, bikes were officially lame.

Then of course there was the 'Cool Bikes' incident. The only time they rode bikes after that was when a bikers gang challenged the group to a bike race, and the winner got all the golf carts since Rigby had to go and brag that carts were way cooler than bikes. There was a bit of property damage, but nothing permanent. The park smelt like burnt rubber for a month and the garage took a couple weeks to repair, but overall it had been a fun day.

Soon, the two birds reached the bike path and found a smooth flat piece to start on. "You remember how to get on and ride, right?" Mordecai asked.

"Yes Daddy, I know!" Maddie insisted.

"Alright, alright." Mordecai took a step back and gave his daughter some space. Maddie looked at the bike, making a face as she concentrated. She stretched her leg over the bike and sat on the seat. Taking a small breath, she kicked the kick-stand up, and felt the bike move forward. Keeping calm, she kept a good grip on the handle bars and peddled. She regained her balance in no time at all, and smiled proudly.

"Alright! Great job Maddie!" Mordecai cheered. If Rigby were there, they probably both would've done an 'OHHHH!'. Maddie glanced back just enough to give her dad a smile, and then faced forward again. She stayed on flat ground for a while, and then decided to go up a hill. Hills were a lot tougher than she thought.

The six and a half year old huffed as she peddled as hard as she could. She felt like every time she peddled forward, she would slip back down. But the bird was determined. Her knees rapidly moving up and down, she leaned forward and peddled as hard as she could, her eyes squeezed shut.

After a while, she felt the job getting easier. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was at the top of the hill! Braking, she stopped to look around. She saw the playground, the barn where Pops' taxi was kept, the forest, and the lake. "Wow," she breathed. She felt like she was on top of the world. "This is so cool!"

Looking down, she saw the other side of the hill, a long stretch of sidewalk plunging down until it leveled out and became flat once again. Grinning, Maddie placed her feet on each peddle, and leaned forward. Letting out a happy yell, she sailed down the hill.

"Weeeee! Woohoo!" the bird hollered, the wind flying past her face. But, as most of the sidewalks in the park, there were small bumps and cracks, and some not so small ones. Unfortunately, this was one of the places with the not so small ones. One of the cracks caught Maddie's front tire and made the entire bike hop up.

"Huh?" Maddie felt the bike start to wobble. "Whoa, whoa! No, no, no!" She let out a small scream as she felt the bike start to fall. Luckily, she was not only near flat ground, but also near soft grass. Remembering what her dad taught her, Maddie let go of the bike, and tried to keep her limbs free of getting hit or twisted into it. She hit the grass, and heard the cling of the metal a foot or two ahead of her.

Surprisingly, she didn't feel hurt. She just felt surprised. For the first few moments, she was frozen. But then, she started to feel the pain. "Owwww," she moaned. Rolling onto her back and sitting up, she felt a stinging pain in her knee. Looking down, she saw spots of red. Blood. She gasped, and felt her eyes start to water.

'No, I'm a big girl,' she told herself, trying to stop herself from crying. She reached up to touch her knee, and noticed that her hand was bleeding too. Cradling her hand in her arm, she felt even more upset. "Maddie!" Maddie looked up, and turned towards the voice. She saw her father running down the hill towards her.

"Maddie!" Mordecai said again. He looked calm, but concerned. "What happened?" he asked.

"Um, my bike..." That was all Maddie could seem to get out. She knew what she wanted to say, but her voice wouldn't let her. She felt a tear roll down her cheek and scowled.

"Are you okay?" Mordecai asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. He could see the scrapes on her hand and knee, the bleeding wasn't too bad though, although she was going to have a couple nasty bruises.

"I..." Maddie sniffed. She wanted to say she was fine, that she could get back on her bike and act like nothing happened. But she just couldn't. She wasn't fine, she was hurt and felt like a baby. Maddie felt two soft, strong arms pick her up.

Mordecai placed her head over his shoulder, and started walking back up the hill. He didn't say much, but he patted her on the back.

"Hey, Benson?" Mordecai said, entering the kitchen. Benson was still there while Pops and Skips were gone. Skips probably started working and Pops was off doing... whatever he was going to do today.

"What is it now Morde-" Benson looked up, and his face softened a little.

"We have a First Aid kit somewhere around here, right?" Mordecai asked.

"Yeah, sure, I'll go get it," said Benson, abandoning his coffee. He came back shortly with a tin case painted white.

"Thanks dude," Mordecai replied. He placed Maddie on the kitchen chair, and started cleaning her scrapes. "This is gonna sting a little, okay?" he said.

"Okay," Maddie replied quietly. As he applied the medicine, he heard Maddie wince, but she never said anything. Looking up, Mordecai saw another tear fall, and Maddie quickly wiped it away, scowling.

"You know, you're pretty tough," Mordecai commented, "There was this one time, Rigby and I were doing tricks. We tried to go down the halfpipe and do a three-sixty. Aaaand we totally failed." He heard a small giggle. "Rigby's mom had to take us both to the hospital, and we were crying the whole way. Yeah we were hurt, but crying was even more embarrassing. But, sometimes you just can't help it.

"Two weeks later, even though we had gotten hurt, we went back and tried to do tricks again." Mordecai chuckled. "We were in the hospital so many times that year. I'm surprised they didn't give us one of those punch cards. You know, 'Twelve trips to the emergency room and you get a free hospital meal'." Maddie giggled again. "We got hurt, and cried about it. But, whenever we would do a trick and actually do it right, everyone would forget about our fails and we would enjoy the moment. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I know," Maddie said with a small smile. Her dad, a boy and older than her at the time, cried when he got hurt. And yet he was still cool. So maybe, crying when she got hurt didn't make her a baby after all. She smiled just a little bigger at that.

"Okay, I think that's everything," Mordecai said after wrapping Maddie's knee and hand. He stood up, and walked to the fridge. "Lemonade or grape juice?"

"Grape!" Maddie chimed. The bluejay got out a purple bottle and poured two glasses, giving one to Maddie. "Thanks Daddy."

"No prob," Mordecai answered. The two sipped their juice and silence. Finally, Maddie spoke up again.

"Hey Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

"After we're done, can we go back outside?" Maddie asked, "I want to ride some more. I promise I'll watch out for bumps."

"Hmm, yeah, I think we can do that," Mordecai answered. His daughter scowled. "What? Did you want me to say no?"

"You didn't say it right!" Maddie said, crossing her arms. Mordecai thought for a moment.

"Oh," he said, smiling, "you mean, 'Yea-yuhhhh'!" Maddie laughed.

"Yeah, that's it!" she said, still laughing. Mordecai just laughed right along with her.

The juice was quickly drank, and together the two birds ran back outside determined to enjoy the day, even if it meant a few bumps and scrapes.

**Just a little Father/Daughter fluff oneshot. Please review, I hope you guys enjoyed it!**


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